But First, Coffee…. a Turkish One

Back when I was younger we used to prepare coffee in a moka pot at home. When we visited my aunt she always served turkish coffee and I remember that I did not understand why would anyone drink that. From my moka perspective, turkish coffee cup was not strong enough, there was too much liquid in the cup and you could feel the coffee grinds in your mouth. Ahhhh, awful!

Then…. All of a sudden my mother started to prepare turkish coffee at home. The rest of us were not thrilled. I remember my father’s face after a sip asking “did anyone here actually said he liked it?”… wondering how did this happen hahahah

Anyhow, I like turkish coffee now and I always prepare it at home. Although I can’t resist a macchiato in a bar 🙂

Turkish coffee is THE coffee on the Balkans. Istria is very close to Italy so italian coffee is very popular here, I would say that approximately 50% of people at home drink turkish coffee.

Bars and coffee shops in Croatia don’t offer turkish coffee, which is normal in Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, for example.

What do I need

There is a special type of turkish coffee pot (“cezve”). It’s a small metallic pot (traditionally copper, but also brass, aluminium and stainless steel). It has a wide bottom and a narrow rim. But if you don’t have the turkish coffee pot, you can also prepare it in any other pot.

The turkish coffee is not a coffee type, it’s all about how to prepare it so you can buy any coffee type that is very fine grinded.

Who wants coffee?

There are small differences on how the coffee is prepared in each of these three countries.

So, let’s start with Croatia… we put the water (with sugar if you want) in a pot and let it boil. When the water boils, we take it off the heat and add coffee (half of the big spoon per cup). Then we put the pot back to the heat and let it reach the boil again. Then we take it off, let it stay a little bit so that the coffee grinds settle down. When we pour the coffee in a cup, we try to put only the liquid. Almost everybody adds at least a little milk.

In Serbia on the other hand, they add much more sugar to the water compared to Croatia. They let it boil and then add coffee. When they put the pot back to the heat they let it boil three times (taking it off the heat for a few seconds each time). They pour the coffee in the cups immediately, filling the cups to the top because half of the cup will be coffee grinds. They don’t add any milk and they drink all the coffee, not leaving even a sip of liquid on the grinds.

My sister has a college friend from Bosnia who taught us how they prepare the “domestic coffee” how they call it. Listen this now! In Bosnia they put the water in a pot and let it boil. Then, they put the coffee at the bottom of the other pot and put it on heat. That’s called “baking the coffee”. After a few seconds (you must be careful not to overbake it) they pour the boiling water over the baked coffee grinds and let it boil once again. They also let the coffee grinds settle down and once they pour it in the cups, each cup needs to have a little of brown coffee foam on the top, otherwise the coffee is “bold” 🙂